Swedish+Covenant+Hospital

In early March, 1920, 33-year-old Christine Hetland died at Chicago's Swedish Covenant Hospital, from an abortion perpetrated by Dr. John M. Klinck. He and a man named Carl Blomgren were held by the coroner but both cases were stricken off.

In October of 1920, 19-year-old Francis Karies died at Chicago's Swedish Covenant Hospital from a criminal abortion that had been performed in Akron, Ohio, by Dr. C. W. Milliken. The coroner recommended Milliken's arrest, but there is no record if any legal action was taken against him for Francis's death.

Swedish Covenant Hospital was founded as the "Home of Mercy" by the Swedish Evangelical Covenant Mission Friends, to provide badly needed medical care to poor Swedish immigrants in their own language. The hospital opened to patients on April 1, 1886 at its location at Foster and California Avenues.

The hospital originally had 12 iron beds, two wooden wash stands, a bookcase, sofa, swing and a table with six chairs. By 1890, the hospital was beginning to expand, with a 40-bed facility built in 1903. A nursing school was added. Patients would have gotten good care at Swedish Covenant Hospital.